Male players must step up and add their voice to the campaign to stop our sport being sold out to the big polluters causing climate change
At the Cop29 climate conference last month Sofie Junge Pedersen and Katie Rood again called for Fifa to drop its sponsorship deal with the Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco. They were among more than 130 female players who signed an open letter in October that described the partnership as a “middle finger to women’s football” that will do real damage to people and our planet.
After the letter was published, I spoke out in support of their initiative. I hoped other professional male players would join me. The women were widely applauded for speaking out but their male counterparts have not followed suit. On Wednesday, Fifa is poised to confirm Saudi Arabia as the host of the 2034 men’s World Cup.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
Female footballers have shown us how – let’s build a sport free of fossil fuel deals | David Wheeler
12/08/2024 - 03:00
12/07/2024 - 15:00
PM vows to overrule local authority heads who resist housing revolution amid concerns from wildlife groups and Labour-run administrations
• On wokeness, patriotism and change, Kamala Harris’s defeat has lessons for Starmer
Keir Starmer has warned local leaders that he will not hesitate to overrule them if they attempt to “dodge their responsibilities” in approving new homes, amid growing concerns among wildlife groups and councils over his plans for a housing revolution.
The prime minister has placed a pledge to build 1.5m new homes in England by the next election at the heart of his government’s plans.
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12/07/2024 - 14:00
Hot, dry conditions bring numerous species into contact with people and pets, and not just in the bush. It’s good to know which is which
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The quickest way to tell the difference between an eastern brown snake and a copperhead is to nearly step on it. If it strikes, it’s an eastern brown. If it stays still as you jump back, it’s a copperhead.
Thankfully, the snake I nearly stood on this week as I walked distractedly through the horse yard was a copperhead. Lowland copperheads are the seventh most venomous snake in Australia, but they are also shy and only bite when severely provoked. They are pretty common here in the Macedon Ranges. This is the second time I’ve nearly stepped on this particular snake. I also didn’t see it when carrying washing out to the line last month. Both times it skedaddled.
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12/07/2024 - 12:00
Plans of deportation and trade wars should concern farmers, yet they backed him by a three-to-one margin
Every year, farmers in California’s Central valley heavily rely on the labor of hundreds of thousands of immigrant agricultural workers to grow and harvest their crops.
But for many in a region that produces one-quarter of the country’s food, president-elect Donald Trump’s promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants – a move that could result in national agricultural output falling by up to $60bn – is not a threat to their livelihoods.
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12/06/2024 - 15:40
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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12/06/2024 - 14:00
New research estimates a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 if greenhouse gases not radically cut
Extreme heat fueled by the climate crisis is often viewed as primarily a problem for vulnerable segments of the population, such as elderly people. But it is people aged under 35 that are set to suffer the brunt of heat-related deaths as temperatures climb, new research has suggested.
While older people are susceptible to heatwaves, they currently make up the bulk of cold-related deaths. As the world heats up, it will be younger people that will suffer disproportionately as the mortality burden shifts, with the new study estimating a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 years old this century from heat if greenhouse gases emissions aren’t radically cut.
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12/06/2024 - 12:00
Former and current NFL and WNBA stars are ushering in a wave of athlete-farmers who see farming as a greater mission
When Jason Brown speaks to schoolchildren, they clamor to hear about his seven-year NFL career. A mountain of a man who stood six-three and weighed 330lbs in his prime, he excelled at center – gridiron speak for the innermost lineman who initiates offensive plays by “snapping” the ball between his legs to the quarterback.
Brown entered the draft in 2005 after standout years at the University of North Carolina. He quickly gained a reputation for being a human plow who relentlessly cleared pathways for some of the game’s best. He got paid well for it, signing a $20m free-agent contract with the St Louis Rams in 2009. At 26, he was the position’s highest paid player in the league, and he bought the toys to show it: the MTV Cribs-style house, the flashy cars to match.
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12/06/2024 - 11:20
Non-native species introduced by humans are among the main causes of global species decline -- they were partly responsible for 60 percent of the species that have become extinct worldwide in recent decades. In Central Europe, non-native mammals include species such as the Norway rat, the mouflon and the mink. Now a study shows that some of these species introduced by humans are themselves endangered in their native range.
12/06/2024 - 09:00
Here are some of the standout images from the 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania photo contest.
The 2024 contest saw close to 2,000 entries from photographers in Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
Dead native birds and flying foxes found in SA town home to one of world’s largest lead smelters
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12/06/2024 - 09:00
High voltage required to use Aemo’s emergency backstop is a bit like stopping a car by driving into a tree, Vince Garrone says
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This week’s call by the Australian Energy Market Operator for “emergency backstop” mechanisms to switch off rooftop solar systems brings safety risks, because the high voltages needed exceed the limits that many appliances have safely been tested for.
That’s according to Vince Garrone, former power quality manager at Energex, Queensland’s biggest electricity distributor who called the situation ironic. Authorities, in using “brute force” to trip inverters, were creating the very high voltage conditions the device protection was designed to prevent.
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